They are getting to the bottom of it They get smarter - we get even better then them The Chinese use earth moving machines to smuggle Ivory Then they make fake pallets that look like timber planks Then they hide the Ivory is sea shells bags , Garlic Bags ....... then its placed at the bottom of the container it goes on on....... Here is the latest of them all Rhino Horn Smuggling looking at the pictures below it will tell you what extent a smuggle will go to smuggle the horn They get smarter but the Custom officials get smarter COALITION OF CONSERVATIONISTS EMBARK ON HORN BURNING CEREMONIES .....LIFTING A FINGER AT CRIME SYNDICATES AND LEGAL TRADE PROPOSALS Simon Bloch An international coalition of conservationists, European politicians and zoological institutions have upped the anti in the war against rhino poaching and today embark on a global campaign to erradicate demand and stop the grotesque slaughter of the charismatic pachyderms. While ministerial rhetoric, sketchy bilateral agreements and weakly-worded MoUs have failed to impress most international conservation circles - let alone put a dent in the (illegal) market for rhino horn products - the Burn Horns campaign moves into high gear today, (a day before World Rhino Day) with a series of horn-burning ceremonies taking place across three continents. Like the 1989. Kenyan ivory burn that saw 12 tons of ivory go up in smoke and burnt to ashes – a successful initiative that substantially reduced elephant poaching across Africa for twenty odd years until the 2008 legally sanctioned ivory sales to Asian countries re-ignited the continent’s poaching crisis – organizers hope the Burn Horns campaign hope will send out the message that “rhino horn has no medicinal or financial value“. In Europe, the burning ceremonies will take place in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Most of the horns being burnt are from zoo stock-piles. However, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have committed to burn rhino horns of South African origin today, seized during a three year - long criminal investigation. Last July, Czech authorities announced the arrest of 16 people and the seizure of 24 rhino horns after disrupting a crime syndicate. The syndicate sent proxy trophy-hunters to South Africa to mask the smuggling of fraudulently obtained rhino horns to Asia. Eight horns were also confiscated in Slovakia, despite the fact that South African authorities permitted the exports, even stamping official CITES documents with the official South African Government seal of approval. According to internationally recognised CITES protocols, hunting trophies may only be shipped to the hunter’s country of residence as a memento of the hunt, and may not be traded or shipped to third-parties. Micro-chip data identified the horns as having been exported from Limpopo hunting farms. While effectively giving the finger to organised crime syndicates and poachers that have perpetuated the rampant slaughter of rhinos across the world, the campaign is also expected to diminish South Africa’s efforts to curry favor with the European Union. The EU is a crucial voting bloc at CITES 2016, whose support will be vital to South Africa should that nation launch a formal proposal for the UN body to lift the 35 year old ban international ban on rhino horn trade. Legendary rhino conservationist Tony Fitzjohn, OBE, who runs the Mkomazi rhino sanctuary in Tanzania, will light the pyre of more than 60 kilograms of rhino horn. Calling the initiative long-overdue, Fitzjohn said: “It is essential to reduce rhino horn consumption as much as possible and make people aware of the final extermination of the species that will result if this trade continues. Every step in restricting the trade and exposing the myths of its properties matters immensely and helps to protect and perpetuate rhinos here in Africa.” The key Czech Republic ceremony at world-famous Dvur Kralove Zoo, will be attended by the CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon, member of the European Parliament and co-author of the Euepean parliament resolution on wildlife crime Pavel Poc, Miss Earth Czech Republic 2013 Monika Leová, who is of Vietnamese origin, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). UN officials and members of Europol. The initiative was spear-headed by the Czech Wildlife Management Authority under the auspices of the Czech Environment Minister, Richard Brabec. It has also been endorsed by an impressive list of luminaries that includes Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Ian Craig, founder of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, Dr Jane Goodall, world famous primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace, and Mary Rice, Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), and a host of political figures and celebrrities. Leakey - who pioneered the concept of burning ivory and rhino horn stockpiles said: “The public burning of rhino horn is a very worthwhile demonstration of the crisis facing rhino world wide. Intelligent, educated people recognize that horn from this critically endangered animal is worthless. Burning it and ridiculing those who value it is an excellent idea.” Czech member of the European parliamentarian Poc said: “When it comes to the burning of the rhino horns, I have heard many arguments against it - typically those centred around the idea that the horns could be sold and the profits should be used for the very protection of rhinos. “Obviously, it sounds tempting, but unfortunately this is not how the things work in todays world. Opening of the legal trade with the rhino horns encourages attempts to legalize the rhino horns on the black market and escalates poaching. “Indeed, we have already witnessed similar situation in the case of ivory. “For me, the value of such an action, inter alia, is that the very people, who could have legal profits from such business, destroy the rhino horns in order to draw attention to the fact that any trade with the rhino horns is unacceptable.” “It is necessary to show clearly that the situation of rhinos in the wild is critical and that it is the demand for rhino horn what drives them towards extinction,” said Premysl Rabas, the director of Dvur Kralove Zoo. “Burning itself is a symbolic event that calls on everyone to re-consider the consequences of her/his behaviour. “By buying rhino horn, you fund criminal gangs and poachers. As a consequences of smuggling and trading in rhino horn, the rangers are killed, innhabitants of poor African regions are terrorized and beautiful animals are destined to suffer cruel death. All of this despite the fact that rhino horn has no properties that it is believed to have“ he said. According to the zoo’s in situ projects co-ordinator Jan Stejskal, other institutions participating in the Burn Horns campaign include reserves, animal parks and zoological gardens, namely Ol Pejeta Conservancy (Kenya) Fitzjohn’s Mkomazi Reserve in Tanzania, Port Lympne (United Kingdom), Doué-la-Fontaine (France), Wroclaw (Poland), Tallinn (Estonia), Zoo Bojnice (Slovakia) and Pilsen (Czech Republic) and the Wildlife Reserves of Singapore. “They will also hold special events to raise awareness on the plight of rhinos. Some of them will burn rhino horns or replicas in memory of all poached rhinos“ Stejskal said. At Kenya‘s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, East Africa’s largest black rhino sanctuary, the reserve will open a rhino cemetery in memory of all rhinos killed by poachers over the last years. In Asia, the Wildlife Reserves of Singapore will launch its month-long campaign that includes an exhibition of Sumatran rhino photographs and a public seminar on the plight of rhinos. The Singapore Zoo will set up a booth high-lighting that rhino horn is just keratin (material of human hair and nails) with no medicinal value. At the booth, visitors will be requested to clip their nails as a pledge to not buy or use rhino horn products. ENDS CAPTION Today (Sunday), a day before World Rhino Day is commemorated world-wide, Czech Republic and Slovakian authorities will burn more than 100 kilograms of rhino horns, including ten rhino horns that were seized in Eastern Europe after they were fraudulently shipped from South African hunting farms. The horns were with illegally obtained by pseudo hunters from the Czech Republic and later shipped overseas with CITES documents stamped with the South African seal of approval. Two horns (pictured) were discovered by Czech customs agents at Prague’s Vaclav Havel airport in December last year, concealed in a shipping container marked as electrical wire accessories. The horns had been carefully disguised, covered with plastic film, coated with resin and hidden in the hollow centre of an electical wire spindle. They were addressed to a consignee in Vietnam by a trans-national crime syndicate operating under-cover in Eastern Europe.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 09:46:40 +0000